Currently, rearview cameras are readily available to passenger vehicles and to some fleet-based tractor trailers to greatly improve the driver's view behind the vehicle. Many tractor trailer drivers, such as “owner operators”, cannot employ these cameras, however, because these drivers frequently haul different trailers. There is therefore a need for a stable, yet removable, fixture to mount a closed caption television camera (CCTV) upon substantially any type of large truck trailer. Because of this camera mobility, there is also the need to ensure that images captured by the camera are correctly provided to the driver of which ever vehicle the camera is mounted on, by providing adaptable communications between the CCTV and the specific display system provided in the vehicle.
The invention comprises of a CCTV removable system enabled by clamping devices for instant securing or releasing of apparatuses containing camera(s), wiring, optional antenna(s), power supply modules and other accessories to be attached at the very back of large vehicles and especially designed for the articulated ones, which have to be frequently coupled or uncoupled.
The camera, placed at the rear of the vehicle(s) may be conventionally wired to the TV monitor placed inside the cab of the truck through a long cable connecting each other. The system may, however, alternatively be done in a wireless manner with one or more transmitting the antenna(s) connected to the camera(s) and one or more receiving antennas attached to the very back of the tractor chassis and wired to the viewing monitor. For a straight truck version, the receiving antenna(s) may be alternatively installed somewhere else upon the vehicle. One major benefit of a wireless system is the opportunity to move the camera between vehicles, and to be able to recalibrate or re-synchronize it each time, to communicate properly with the monitor associated the particular vehicle on which the camera is mounted. An example of a suitable protocol under which the camera may be moved and re-synchronized to different display monitors is a Bluetooth® Secure Simple Pairing (SSP) protocol.
The transmitting antenna(s) may be placed close to the ground sending signals to the receiving one(s), installed also near the pavement for unobstructed wireless transmission within the ground clearance of the vehicle(s).
It will be understood that mentioned transmission could alternatively be done overhead, on the sides of the vehicles, etc., by providing appropriate hardware to hold the antennas in pertinent configurations.
In order to activate the system also when the tractor is not coupled to any trailer, there is another hardware device to be permanently installed on the back of the tractor, which may feature replicas of segments of the fixtures or mechanisms where the camera(s) and accessory devices would be alternatively clamped onto when at the back of the trailer or maritime container.
Still further objects and advantages of the invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains upon reference to the following detailed description.